Q&A with the authors of Anti-Bias Education

An NAEYC Online Event

The influence of media and the effects of globalization challenge those of us who care for and educate young children to develop and sustain learning environments that are inclusive, nurturing, and tolerant. Decades of work and research by educators, activists, and social scientists have validated the need to create classrooms where we teach and live the ideals of equality and justice. This online event was hosted by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards, author-educators in the vanguard of such work. The authors share:

***

It is important to remember that it is not human differences that undermine children’s development but rather unfair, hurtful treatment based upon those differences.

Early childhood teachers want each child in their care to feel powerful and competent. They strive to welcome every child and to show respect to each family as best they know how. However, beyond individual teachers’ hopes, beliefs, and actions is a society that has built advantage and disadvantage into our many institutions and systems.

Inequity of resources in society, and the biases we use to justify that inequity, have an enormous impact on children’s lives. The dynamics of advantage and disadvantage, deeply rooted in our history, continue to shape the degree of access children have to education, medical care, security . . . in a word, to the elements necessary for children’s healthy development. These dynamics also greatly affect the early childhood education system, despite whatever values individual teachers may have.

Given the continuing societal inequities into which children are born, anti-bias education raises the following questions for early childhood educators:

How does living in a highly diverse and inequitable (unjust) society affect children’s development?

What do children in a diverse but inequitable society need to grow up healthy and strong?

What do early childhood educators (and families) need in order to respond to this challenge?

Our bookAnti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves looks at these questions and provides a set of strategies for teachers who want to see themselves as champions for all children and their families.

Learning to be an effective anti-bias educator is a journey. Wherever you begin, there are always new paths to explore and knowledge to acquire. We’ve been doing this work for more than 40 years and there’s always something new we trip over and need to learn.

Please send us your questions about your own journey and your work with children, families, or other teachers. The more specific your questions, the better the dialogue can be. We look forward to this conversation.

— Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards

Comments

Many thanks to the authors of "Anti-Bias Education," Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards, for such thoughtful responses, and a special thank you to the community of early childhood educators who participated in this event for your interesting and unique questions.

We look forward to more events related to NAEYC books and comprehensive benefits—coming up Jan. 17–21, Lilian Katz and Judy Harris Helm will discuss their new book “Young Investigators.”

I've really been enjoying reading through all the great dialogue on this site. There have been lots of great questions and so many people participating. One of the things I'm noticing is that Louise and Julie's warm respectful tone and willingness to tackle hard topics makes room for us to ask big questions and try new things. I hope we'll all take this model of listening to others without judgement and doing our best to help people learn and grow to our own work with children, families and co-workers. Thanks for the wonderful role modeling Louise and Julie!

It has been exciting to read the range of questions. Doing anti-bias education is complex and it calls on us to be thoughtful and intentional about our work—and that requires us to talk with each other. Thanks for recognizing that helping people feel okay about raising and discussing the kind of issues raised here is at the heart of effective anti-bias education work. We very much agree that tackling hard, complex and emotion-evoking topics in a ‘warm, respectful’ way—even when saying hard things—is key.

I really appreciate how Chapter 5 was very unbiased and very informative especially in regards to the English language and how kids go about learning it or 'not' learning it.

My question/concern is, don't you think that it would not be the smartest idea to teach kids in their own language? That teaching style is mentioned in Chapter 5 and confused me a little bit. They are indeed here in America now and will be faced with using primarily English for the rest of their lives as long as they stay here. How does one justify teaching children in Spanish or any other foreign language for that matter? The priority here should be to have these children speaking fluent english by the time they approach their high school years or else they are going to be in for a more difficult struggle then they would be if they did not know english in their younger years.

Of course all children growing up in the U.S. need to learn to speak, read, write and think in English. We couldn’t agree more. There are two questions that go with this statement. First, how do we most successfully achieve English fluency and literacy in children whose home language is not English. And second, does that preclude children being raised to be fluently bi-lingual and bi-literate - an increasingly important skill set for anyone who will be successful in our global world.
It is important to distinguish between children developing “school yard fluency” (being able to converse with other children and manage daily interactions in a language) and intellectual fluency (the ability to write, think, apply abstract concepts, deeply learn, etc.). In order to learn new concepts, young children need to connect rich language experiences with hands on, active learning. When young children’s home language (where they have the most fluency) is connected with their active experiences in early education, they learn quickly and deeply. There is a large body of research that shows us children learn best when they develop fluency and literacy in their home languages first – while being exposed to a second language. And that the transfer to the second language comes slowly – but then happens effectively. Learning complex ideas is hard enough when you are competent in the language of instruction. For children who do not have language competency, their understanding falls behind each year creating an achievement gap that is very, very difficult to bridge.
It is also important to remember that the emotional life of the child profoundly impacts their ability to learn. (Read Carol Lyons wonderful book “Teaching Struggling Readers” for a very understandable and fascinating look at the impact of feelings on learning). When children’s home language is treated as second-rate, when their language is not included into their early childhood program, children often internalize the message that there is something wrong, something to be ashamed of, something not good-enough, about them and their families.
This is not an either/or issue. We don’t have to say “either children will be taught only English or not at all in English”. The most effective way to teach for literacy and fluency is to help children richly develop their primary language with increasing exposure and education in English in each passing year.

The DAP focuses very much on the relationships built between teachers and young students. Relationships can be built, both strong and weak, with a language barrier. I have experienced a strong student/teacher relationship with a language barrier. Although, I could not imagine how much stronger it would be if that relationship would have focuses a bit on the development of the english language with the student. Page 66 of Chapter five really spurred this question. There is a little box titled, "Why Don't They Learn English?" and it caught my eye because of the that it was worded. I initially thought that it was a bias statement, because it usually is when referring to people who do not know English well, but it was not. The little blog about this topic was simply trying to say that it is good to develop a relationship that is NOT built upon language. This confuses thus had me ask the question stated above. The language that a teacher would speak would surely set a certain "environment" for the other children and if she was constantly translating for a student then the other students could get frustrated or even angry of the fact that the teacher spends more time with the student with language problems as opposed to them. There should be a separate school or class for students like this, unfortunately. As stated in the DAP it is the teachers job to set certain standards within a classroom one of which should be a primary language.

I’m confused by your above statement Louis, so am not sure what you are asking. Let me try to respond idea by idea.

Yes – teachers and parents can develop a relationship even when they don’t speak the same language. But it is not easy, and there is no way it can be a relationship that brings real understanding of issues and feeling in either direction.Translators play a big role here – and can make a huge difference in letting both teachers and parents understand each other.

I’m glad you read Luis Hernandez’ “Why Don’t They Learn English?”He was writing to dispel the biased assumption that if people wanted, they could pick up English quickly. He does not say that you can build a strong relationship “not built upon language”. Rather he offers suggestions for things teachers can do to support families and show their respect to those families when the teacher does not share their language – which includes learning some phrases and words in the families’ home tongue. But he is not implying that this replaces translation or having staff that IS able to speak with the family.

Your third concern is about children being frustrated if teachers use more than one language. Our experience (and that of our many colleagues in bi-lingual programs), is that young children are very patient with adults who transfer between languages if the tone of the classroom is up-beat and positive and based on the assumption that all of children are important and hearing everyone’s ideas is important. Children very much want to understand each other and be understood. They fairly quickly pick up simple ideas in each other’s languages. It is usually adults who speak the dominant language (in this case English) who become impatient and irritated that they have to listen to a translator. Furthermore, in a true bi-lingual environment –teachers do not spend their time translating everything that is said! They teach sometime in one language – and other times in the second language. Children learn to listen to both!

Lastly – I completely agree. We should have separate classes for new immigrant children in our upper elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. These young people deserve a place where people help them make the huge and difficult transition into a new society, a new culture and a new language. And after the transition classroom they deserve on-going support to become literate and competent in both their home languages and in English. So far only some school districts provide this support. Maybe someday it will be available everywhere.

I would like to begin by saying how much I have appreciated reading Chapter 5 and all of the questions/comments along with it. I truly believe it is so very vital for the future social/emotional well being of our little ones that we, as providers, embrace and celebrate the wonder of diversity and what it can teach us. Diversity takes on many forms from ethnic origin to cultural differences, religious differences right on down to "I have brown eyes and you have blue eyes". I love one of the statements in Chapter Five; "No one group is superior to others, nor one culture's behaviors the standard and all others just variations". Considering the state of bullying in society today as children grow older, in my opinion much of the bullying stems from some sort of bias, we have an ethical responsibility to our young ones to teach them that we are all the same in our differences. As caregivers, we have an exciting opportunity to positively impact the way a child looks at the world and that is pretty cool! I want to thank you for addressing such an important issue in this book. I have always been a big believer of embracing differences, we have so much to learn from each other, but reading this chapter brings it home to me on being a much more intentional teacher in relationship to building a classroom that understands how much fun it is to be diffferent, yet the same. Thanks so much!

We agree that it IS pretty cool to be able to positively impact the way a child looks at the world. I can’t say it any better than did Carol Brunson Day in the foreword to Anti-Bias Education for Young Children & Ourselves: “What if someone told you that you could contribute in a small but significant way to making the world a better place? Would you want to do it?... a chance to make the world fairer and more humane for everybody[?]… and the chance to achieve that grand goal from a place where you have chosen to be—in your daily work with children and families[?] …. Should you choose to fully engage in the [anti-bias educator] journey your reward will be a renewed sense of hope that by your own hand, things really can change”.

Yes, that is exactly how you do it. When children in the program come from many varied backgrounds you have plenty material for the year for exploring how we are the same and different from each other. You want to make sure that all children are visible in your visual environment and teaching materials. This may mean you have to make some of your own teaching materials, with help from other staff and families. You also can build your curriculum around ABE goals 3 and 4 in relation to the children in the program—building connectedness and community, learning to play and work cooperatively across cultural and language differences, treating everyone fairly, intervening in and changing hurtful behaviors based on another child’s identity, and helpign children learn to identify and counter misinformation and stereotypes about themselves and others .

You shared in the chapter on culture language and fairness that many
Families and teachers sometimes worry that if a
classroom includes languages other than English, the
children who are native English speakers won’t get
the support they need for their continuing language
and cognitive development.

My question is:
What do you do in the case where a child refuses to particpate in the learning of another language?or maybe Where the parent is against implementing another language because they feel its undermining the learning of the english language?

What you do depends, as in all early childhood issues, on the specific reasons underlying a child’s refusal to engage in learning another language. The first step is to try to learn from the child why she/he does not want to participate in the second language learning. Children may not want to learn a second language (be it English or another language) because they feel they cannot do it, or fear teasing when they do not speak “correctly. It is important to create a learning environment in which all languages, and communications styles are supported—including the child who needs time to speak. Always immediately intervene when a child in your program teases or rejects another child because of how she/he speaks. If an English-speaking child refuses to participate in learning another language, it may be that they have picked up the message (from thru the larger society or their family) that other languages are not as good as English. Your learning environment can counter this view. Conversely , when children ‘s home language is other than English, they may refuse to use that language at school because they have picked up the message that English is the language of power and that their language is not considered as good as English. In that case, supporting the value of the child’s home language, as well as English, by your behavior and learning environments, would be the approach to take.
As to your second question, English speaking parents who oppose early childhood programs introducing a second language ( most often when it is Spanish), because they feel it will undermining the learning of English, are not uncommon. In our experience, their concerns arise from one or more of the following sources. One is the lack of accurate information about how children learn language and children’s ability to begin learning a second language. Second, is their lack of awareness of how English is very well supported in our society and there is no reason at all to fear that children from English speaking homes will not learn English. They may benefit from ideas about how they can also support their child's best English language development at home. Third, the opposition to a second language frequently is related to which language is being introduced. There is a long tradition in American private schools serving wealthy children, to teach a European second language, such as German or French, and, in more recent years, an Asian language, such as Japanese. Parents in such schools do not worry about their children not learning English. The problem almost always seem to arise when a school introduces Spanish as a second language, or implements a dual- English/Spanish-language program. We believe that the widespread prejudice directed at immigrants and American citizens from Mexico and Central America is a frequent reason for people’s opposition to Spanish. However, even when prejudice underlies parental opposition to bilingual education, people do not usually voice this-but rather use non-prejudiced sounding reasons such as being worried that their child will not English. In such cases, offer families accurate information about children’s capacity to begin to learn a second language, as well as the several advantages. This includes improving cognitive development, preparing children for more job flexibility and advantages, and, to thrive in a multi-cultural, language society and world. See the website of the National Association of Bilingual education (www.nabe.org), as well as the resources about language from NAEYC. This information will often enable most families who initially object, to feel reassured and okay with bilingual education. Also make clear your program’s policy and reasons for bilingual education and your bottom lines about using this approach.
What are readers thoughts regarding Miriam’s question.

In chapter 5 you give the example of the little Arab girl who is being mistreated by one of her classmates. You write about what the teacher tells her parents but not about what you tell the offending child's parents, especially since it was not the first time that those parents where spoken to about racist remarks. What do you say to them? You also mention what to do when there is not a resolution between the parents and the teacher. You suggest having the director get involved in helping them find another center in the community. As the referring director wouldn't you have to (and shouldn't you) disclose the reason that the family is in need of a different child care? What center would welcome with open arms such a family?

What to say to parents about a child whom the teacher observes engaging in a pattern of biased behavior is a challenge, requiring a thoughtful balance between being upfront about the undesirable/unacceptable behavior, while not treating either the child or family as the problem. (Not too different from what we say about working with children—treating inappropriate/unacceptable behavior as the problem, not the child). In chapter 5, we do briefly mention what the teacher says to the “offending child’s” parents: “After school, the teacher phoned Margaret’s parents, related what had happened, and described how she handled the incident. She set up a time for a conference with them to increase her own understanding of what was behind the family’s bias and to discuss the principles and practices she saw as vital to the program.” We do not spell out exactly what the teacher should say, because this will vary from situation to situation-depending on the specific communication styles of the teacher and her/his relationships with and understanding of the family. Hopefully the teacher has already built a relationship with them of mutual caring for Margaret. In the conversation re Margaret’s latest incident at school, the teacher can invite the parents to talk more about what lies underneath their prejudice Sometimes when people get to tell their story, this eventually leads to a lessening of what drives their prejudice. It is also important for the teacher to take the position that while she recognizes that the family has strong, negative feelings about people of Arab background, she (the teacher) cannot permit Margaret to make school unsafe for Miriam, and will continue to make clear to Margaret that hurtful behavior directed at Miriam is never permitted. . In addition, the teacher may decide to use stronger sanctions with Margaret, such as a time-out , she repeats her behavior.
We also want to make it clear that we are not suggesting that the teacher or director ask the family to leave. (Although, programs should have a policy about how to handle situations where a child’s ongoing behavior makes it unsafe for other children) If the family does not accept the teacher’s and school’s bottom line about Margaret’s behavior, it is the family’s prerogative to go to another school. That is when the director can help them find a school that is more compatible with their values-(i.e. does not use an anti-bias or other diversity education approach). However, we do not think the director needs to tell other directors about the family’s views.
It is a careful balance for those of us who oppose racism or any other kind prejudice and discrimination. We have the right and responsibility to create early childhood programs that foster appreciation of diversity and do not permit prejudiced and discriminatory behavior against children. Our written materials and initial meetings with families should make our policies clear. We also have a responsibility to open up conversations with families when their child exhibits the beginnings of prejudiced and discriminatory behaviors. At the same time, we do not have the right to insist families share our views if they want to be on our programs.
We invite blog readers to add their thoughts to this challenging question.

Hello, and thank you all for sharing such wonderful questions, I am learning so much from you. I was asked to put together a anti-bias curriculum to share with all of the teachers in our center. We teach children 6 weeks to 6 years. Can you suggest what I focus on, there is so much that I want to but time only allows for so much. What do you think are the major "must knows" that I can present to them? It is so exciting to know we are teaching our children to be proud of themselves and their families, and to honor others. Thank you.

The “must knows” for working with colleagues (and families) on anti-bias education are about how to engage people over time to learn together about what and how to do anti-bias work. Content is not enough. Without an individual’s buy-in to the purpose, reasons, goals and principals of anti-bias education with children, it is unlikely that she or he will do much with new information. We suggest that you think through how you can set up a process and structure so that teachers who want to, can regularly meet together over as school year to: (1) read and discuss chapters of the ABE book, (2) do self-growth activities, such as talking together about the “Stop and think’ questions throughout the many chapters, and, (3) as they do work in their classrooms, report on specific activities , and reflect together on what they learned and what they want to do next. Through this approach, each teacher can choose what specific areas of anti-bias education to work on with her/his group of children and, together as a group, the teachers will no doubt address a range of issues.

Read or reread chapter 3--“Becoming an Anti-Bias Teacher: A Developmental Journey”—in the ABE book. Your first task will be to develop a presentation to all of the staff that will inspire them (or at least some) to join in such a yearlong process. Then, you will really be doing the work you want to do. As one of the contributors to the ABE book explained: “This work is as much about changing your own perspective as a teacher as it is about the activities you do in the classroom. If you’re not willing to make a commitment to the four anti-bias education goals yourself, the rest is not useful”. - Rita Tenorio

Hello,
I have a small home-daycare with children from different ethnicity, background and home languages. I am Persian and speak Farsi at home. I have been speaking with these children in Farsi and English. I was wondering whether this is the right thing to do since at their home they speak other languages.
My other question is about children of divorce. I have a 3 year old girl who is having a very difficult time dealing with her parents divorce. Even though she is only 3, she understands that her parents are separated. She is most vulnerable when for example seeing other children talk about what they did during the weekend with their parents. What do you suggest I should be doing to help this little girl to cope with this situation better?

Family child care homes are one of the most important places where young children are cared for and educated, and how wonderful it is that you are sharing your home culture with the children in your home. It isn’t clear from your comments if the children in your care come from English speaking homes or from homes where a language other than Farsi or English is spoken. If the children come from homes where the dominant U.S. language, English, is spoken – then your exposing them to Farsi enriches their language development as long as you are also using English to help deepen their vocabulary and understanding. It would be wonderful if you could specifically teach some Farsi to the children – even if they never develop fluency or use the language outside your home. What you will have done is helped their brains “get” that there are many ways of saying things. That ideas and feelings can be expressed in more than one language. And you will be sensitizing them to appreciation of other languages (and speakers of other languages) that they will meet as they grow.
The issues are more complicated if the children come from homes where English is not the family language. These children already have two languages to learn and need to have their home languages honored and supported while they gain experience and skill with English. I’d still share some of your Farsi – after all it is your own language – and the children need to know and appreciate you for being who you are. But I think in this case I would limit the amount of Farsi I used, and would be very sure to include phrases and songs and terms in the children’s home languages as well. Read the chapter on Culture and Language to get some ideas about how to go about doing this.
Your second question is about divorce and a three year old. It is always troubling for a child when the family she has known changes. But you can help her know that it is still her family! Each of her parents still loves her. They are still her Momma and Daddy. Hopefully she still gets to be spend time and be cared for by each of her parents. It will help if you can help her parents be very reliable in whatever arrangements they have made – so that the child can predict when she will see each parent, and you can help her remember “Today your Momma will put you to bed but in two more days you’ll go to your Daddy’s house and he will put you to bed”. The child may want to dictate letters to her parents – about every day ordinary things she does – as a way of keeping them both in her mind. She may also need to do a lot of playing about people leaving and coming back.
Find out what the parents have told the child so you can use their words whenever possible. The parents may want your help to know how to best help their daughter – they’re probably having a hard time too. Key ideas are: We are still and always your Momma and Daddy. Nothing you did made us decide to get divorced. Each of us will always love you. We will always be your family.
There are some terrific books to help children with separation and with divorce. “You Go Away” by Dorothy Corey helps children who are worrying about separation. “Fred Stays With Me!” by Nancy Cofelt is a great co-custody book.

Thank you so much for your useful comments, specially about my second problem and referring me to the books about divorce's issues, by the way right now I have american and persian children though I had a cupel of Korean, who spoke english only as far as I figured it out. Thank you again and I will be in touch.
Best regards

If the backgrounds of the children currently in your family child care program are Persian and American, then speaking Farsi and English with them is very appropriate. You foster the cultural indentity of the Persian children and enable them to learn/ speak English and you foster awareness and respect for other languages for children whose home language is English.

I live and teach in the Alaska "bush" to an overwhelming majority of Eskimo/Yupik students. The district is totally English Language learners. I challenge someone in Early Childhood in the lower 48 to come study why our students continue to fail. We had preschools closed because we used "honey buckets" and have no running water. Our ECERS evaluator wanted to know why our students do not flush the toilets and deducted points for snowy/icy walkways! We have snow from October to March/April with permafrost. Unless we had a heated walkway, it is never clear! We have many families on portable water and sewer therefore running water is limited. How do we help students succeed in a subsistence culture which is severely affected by the highest rate of suicide, sexual assault and Fetal Alcohol Affect? We would like your help!

Thank you for doing the work you do. As no doubt you and colleagues do, we wish we could provide you with all the resources you and the families in your community need for your children. Sadly, you describe horrible realities that are the consequences of a long history of ill treatment by our society of Eskimo/Yupik students, other Inuit and Native American peoples—and will require intentional, sufficient resources and support from that society to change. As individuals, early childhood people can play their role in the political changes needed for this to happen.
As their early childhood teachers, you know the needs of children in your community better than we -- or outside evaluators do! Unfortunately, what you describe about your ECERS evaluator is not uncommon, i.e., not paying attention to realities in the community-be they geographic, economic or cultural. We know that, for the most part, standards for ECE programs were developed based on dominant culture, middle-class economic conditions and cultural criteria, and then other communities are judged according to how much they are like dominant culture, middle-class programs. This issue has been the topic of great debate and some change within NAEYC accreditation standards, which are attempting to take more account the cultural realities of communities. We still have a way to go to thoroughly do this-- as do other standards and accreditation systems. These dynamics make your job more difficult. Nevertheless, there is a great deal you can do for your children by honoring who they are, helping them become bicultural , able to negotiate effectively in their own and the dominant couture, adapting your program to the economic and cultural realities of their community (as you seem to be doing),and intentionally, thoughtfully fostering the children’s developmental and academic abilities . I (Louise) was a teacher in the Perry Preschool Project, whose children were the ‘cohorts” studied by the High Scope Research Project, and which found that children from low-income families who experienced preschool ended up much more successful in their lives than did children from the same community who did not go to preschool. The teachers in the Perry Preschool Program tried to follow many of the principles of anti-bias education (although we didn’t call it that then), as well as paying attention to the children’s cognitive development.
We invite other readers to contribute their experiences and idea about
ECE work in Native American communities.

Just want to second Peter's thanks to Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards for crafting such thoughtful responses, And thanks to all who have posted for the interesting questions. These events are new to NAEYC and we are pleased that so many of you are participating.

My son is attending a very rural elementary school which practices things like celebrating just Christmas and no other seasonal holidays like Hannukah or Kwanza or Eed day. Also has holiday parties and asks us to contribute "boy" and "girl" presents. Basically practices that I thought went out in the seventies. There are no other school options available. This disturbs me because as a Certified Early Ed. Teacher I know what effects these practices have. Any suggestions on what to do?

It’s so hard when our children attend schools that do not reflect our deepest values. Like most parents, you don’t have any real options. This is the only school available. So here are a few suggestions.

First, think about some specific, small changes that could begin to broaden the school’s approach. (Maybe you could come in and teach a segment on Hanukkah and Kwanza. Maybe several families might want to talk about the different ways they celebrate Christmas.) make a date to talk to the teacher. Don’t go in telling her s/he has gotten it wrong and is hurting the children. Start by asking her what it is she hopes the children will learn in her curriculum. Look for ideas you can support. (It’s a lot of work to put together a Christmas party with gifts – clearly she cares about the children). Appreciate what you can. Then tell her what parts trouble you and offer some suggestions to vary the curriculum. Set yourself up as an ally who wants to support the school.

Most teachers feel so overwhelmed, that when someone comes in offering assistance they are eager to accept. Some teachers feel threatened any time a parent talks to them – and may become eve more doctrinaire. Either way – you have to try – for your son’s sake and for the sake of the other children.

Even small changes make a difference. And when teachers see what children learn with a broader approach – they become more open to trying new things.

Secondly –no matter what the school is teaching – you are in the powerful position of being with your child every day of his life. Teachers come and go – families are forever. So at home you can model what you think and believe. And you can help your child learn to think critically about what is being taught in school. You can ask him to think about the “boy – girl” gifts and talk about what is good about that idea – and why it might not be a good idea. (Don’t be surprised if he has trouble figuring it out – you can tell him what you think too!)

You can talk about “In our family we know that only some people celebrate Christmas, while other people celebrate Hanukkah and Kwanza, and Solstice and many other holidays. And some people don’t do celebrations at all.” You can read books that widen his horizons. You can take advantage of the wonderful availability of cultural information on the web. You can look for opportunities to take him on trips to more diverse communities – and talk to him about exactly what you are doing and why. Over and over you can find ways for him to experience a richer, more diverse world. And you can let him know what you are doing to make the world a fairer, most just place for everyone. “In our family we don’t think only girls like to play cooking or only boys like to play ball. We believe that both boys and girls like to do both things!”

Great questions & responses. Thank you Louise & Julie your work--and for this Q&A session. And thank you ECE field for the continued attention to today's issues, as we hold on to our highly principled foundation.

Thank you Peter for your long-term and on-going support of the anti-bias work within naeyc and in the early childhood profession. And thank you to naeyc for publishing the book, setting up the Q & A, supporting the Focus Groups that address these issues. We're all in this together - and for the long haul.

I've enjoyed reading the questions/comments/responses to this Q&A so far. Interestingly enough, though, no one has asked about incorporating anti-bias work in infant/toddler classes and programs. I think many of the responses could be applied to working with infants and toddlers, but are there are particular considerations/strategies (e.g., environmental, interactional, developmental) to be aware of when working with children under 3?

Thanks for asking! There are many infant/toddler caregivers who are committed to anti-bias values and provide an anti-bias program for their little ones. But, of course, it looks very different from the programs for play years children.

To quote Janet Gonzalez Mena “Babies are at the beginning of forming their identities. What they learn about themselves depends in part on what they see (and do not see ) in their environment as well as on the spoken and unspoken messages they receive from their caregivers”. The first goal of Anti-bias education is “Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities”. For little ones – this translates into finding their home culture and home people reflected in their care setting. This means creating an environment where children see simple, clear, images of families like their own depicted in pictures, books, and play objects. It means creating a consistency of care by reflecting the particular culture of touch, voice, food, holding, routines – specific to each infant. In doing this, a program transmits to infants that their home, their family, their very personhood, is valued and treasured.

The second goal is “Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences’ and deep, caring human connections”. We build this in infant/toddler programs by modeling our delight in, and providing words for, each child’s unique physical characteristics. We recognize how interested babies are in the human face and give words to how faces are different and the same. We make sure the children hear and see us talk with each of their family members with equal respect and warmth. And, most important, we build a community between the families and the staff where the everyone comes to appreciate the different values, struggles, strengths of each family.

Anti-bias work with infants and toddlers is foundation work. And everything rests on a strong foundation.

We see the need to develop clear materials for parents to articulate how we work with children around anti-bias issues. Often teachers are hesitant to go further with discussions and/or activities with children due to concern about how parents will respond to the content of the discussions. For example, in recent conversations with children the issue of how babies come into families came up - with a child saying that two moms can't make a baby (is this because the child knows how babies are made biologically or because their family doesn't have two moms and it is outside of their experience? We don't know the answer to this child's thinking because the teacher was hesitant to delve further because they were concerned that they may get into a conversation about how babies are created and then concerned about how parents would respond to this conversation happening in a school context). This is only one example of how the teachers concerns about parental concerns stop rich discussions about issues that the children are exploring. I would love to hear how schools can effectively communicate anti-bias practice to parents in a way that would support teachers work with children around issues of gender, race, socioecononic class issues, etc.

We agree that we need wonderful, clear materials for families to articulate anti-bias work and hopefully some of the ECE people from other programs will write in their best ideas. But no set of materials takes the place of open, comfortable communication between ECE staff and family members.

Early childhood teachers are often more comfortable talking with children than with adults, but both sets of skills are essential. As you indicated, the teacher’s unease kept her from finding out what the child really had in mind. I suspect it isn’t only because the teacher you described was worried about the parents, but that s/he was also uneasy about the topic itself. It would be important to provide staff development time for the teachers to talk with each other about the anti-bias issues so that they develop an easy vocabulary, clarify key concepts, and figure out their own discomforts and potential biases. This will go a long way to opening up the conversations with the children – and to supporting teachers to know that addressing bias issues is part of the school philosophy and practice. This will also reassure teachers that you have their back. You will support them in having the discussions and activities. You will support them when things don’t go the way they hoped, and celebrate with them when they do.

It is important that the school has spelled out their anti-bas philosophy in the family orientation and handbooks. Families need to know what to expect, and why this is a commitment of the program. It is always helpful to record the conversations and behaviors we see in the children and post them on a special bulletin board “Children wonder about…” or “Here’s something that came up in our classroom this week”. This creates the opportunity for adult conversations about how to address bias/anti-bias issues.

We have had wonderful results from parent meetings where staff and families shared conversations about gender/gender role; racial identity; economic class; culture and language, etc. Once these topics become open, it gets easier for everyone to have important discussions with the children. (You might want to use the “Stop and Think” questions from the various chapters in the Anti-bias book). There have been many articles in Young Children addressing the issues you raise – they make great handouts for parents. Consider using excerpts from the Anti-bias book, or sharing the wonderful chapters on Diversity or Gender from Janis Keyser's "Becoming the Parent You Want to Be". Collecting good articles (including those in newspapers and magazines) is always helpful. But nothing will replace having real conversations.

I have a ten years old son and a eight years old daughter. We belong to different culture and religion as a parent I found it very easy to educate my son our culture and belief but when I tried to teach my daughter my language and culture she is not showing any interest. We are glad to be in a diverse place but we also want our children to understand and respect our culture and belief. So in that case should I wait till she gets older and eventually she will learn or should I rush and kind of force her.

It is not easy to move into a new society and culture, for parents or for children. Good for you for wanting your children to be educated to your family’s beliefs and ways of doing things. The dilemma for your children is that they must live in more than one world, the world of their home, and the world of this new society you have brought them to. They will each develop their own relationship to both worlds (and each child may do it differently). At school and in the neighborhood they have to find ways to belong, to understand and be understood, to make friends and to succeed. Those ways may not be the same ones that work at home. Some children find it easier than others to incorporate both worlds.

During the elementary school years children become more and more interested in friends outside their home and in understanding the bigger world they live in. Do you know if your daughter has faced discrimination or other hurtful behavior because of her ethnicity? You might want to ask her how her school mates think about her ethnicity. She may need your help in feeling comfortable and proud about who she is outside of the home. You might want to talk to her teacher and find out what is going on at school that could be pushing her to resist your teachings.

It helps if you can find other families that share your culture and are friendly with children. Plan to do things with the other families that your child will particularly enjoy. Support her developing friendships within your cultural community (as well as outside of it). By all means use your home language with your children. Worship and live according to your beliefs. Show your children, by how you live, what it is that you value and care about in your culture.

In your question, the words you chose “should I rush and kind of force her” show that you recognize the danger of pushing children beyond where they are ready to go. No matter what, your children will grow up to live lives that in some ways will be different from yours. Like all parents, including those who have lived in this society all their lives, all you can do is live and model your values, present your ideas to your children with joy and conviction, and trust that in the long run, your love and pride in them will help them find a way to incorporate the parts of your culture they can use - into the world they will inherit.

Thank you for the support and help, after reading your comment I did came up with some clues and ideas. As you said we as parent have to pass our values to our children and I do understand that the way I have been rised is different the way my kids are growing I just have to keep all these in mind and try my best to pass them the cultures and the belief and also I have to trust them and myself.

I’m Iranian and I care a lot about my culture and is so important to me that my children learn about that.
This information help me a lot to find a way for teaching my culture to my children, and teach them to respect to others cultures.
I think one of the benefit of leaving in this country is that we can see so many different people with different culture, so are children can learn about all different culture and respect them. And that is so important to me as a provider and future teacher to know how to reaction to the children and they parents with different culture, language, and fairness. And this information was so helpful for the start.

Thank you Bahareh for letting us know the book was useful for you as a parent and as a teacher. And thank you for recognizing that our great diversity is a strength when we can address it with fairness and respect.

In December of 2010 I will be graduating and going into the working world as a preschool teacher. I think to vaule others for their diversity due to many factors such as disablity, culture, different lanauge, etc. is important for children to see so they know that their are differences out there. It gives the children a apprication for different cultures and a different perspective to look at life with. Being a first year teacher, how would you suggest to make my classroom as diverse as possible? Thanks for you help. Take care. ~Betsy :)

As a future professional, be sure to check your spelling and use of the correct form of a word before sending out notes to parents. Misspelled words and poor grammar can leave a negative impression on parents who may notice.

I wanted to add two additional thoughts about the spelling issue. One: While spelling does matter—although not so much on blogs like the one in which we are participating -- I am also concerned about the silencing affect when we only respond to another person’s written comments with spelling criticisms, and say nothing about their ideas. I imagine many of us remember when we were treated that way in school and lost our desire and confidence to write at all as a result. Two: It is helpful to ask a colleague to edit/proof-read writing that goes out to the larger world. Authors always have their manuscripts copy-edited by a person who is a professional in that area

Dear Anonymous,
You are absolutely correct that accurate spelling and grammar matter - not only in letters to families, but also inside the classroom. However, no matter how accurately written, if communications to families lack kindness, thoughtfulness and vision, they will do little good. This beginning teacher is being brave and open in asking for help about one of the hardest issues teachers face - how to prepare children to live in this diverse and inequitable society. I'd prefer to support her for her recognition that including families into her program is important - rather than only discuss the form her written communique took.

In December of 2010, I will be graduating and going into the working world as a preschool teacher. I think to vaule others for their diversity due to many factors such as disablity, culture, different lanauge, etc. is important for children to see so they know that their are differences out there. It gives the children a apprication for different cultures and a different perspective to look at life with. It shows children that being different is okay and unquie and something not to be frowned upon. Being a first year teacher, how would you suggest to make my classroom as diverse as possible and ingerate the parents and child in this process, so they feel a part of a community? Thanks for you help. Take care. ~Betsy :)

Congratulations on graduating, and welcome to our profession! It's wonderful that you are recognizing the importance of children learning the skills for living healthy, strong lives in a highly diverse, and still inequitable, society. You don't yet know where you will be working, but even if your classroom is one of the rare ones that is all one racial identity group, or one economic class, there will still be diversity (family structure, family cultures, abilities, gender, etc.) for you to name, celebrate and support. You begin with the children and families that are part of your program. You help children name how we are all the same and how we are all different. And you open up conversations and curriculum about those differences and support children in standing up for who they are and being open to who other people are. Then you begin to add in differences from in the wider community.
The idea is not that you must address every kind of difference that exists, but that you help children develop thinking skills that find human differences interesting, language for addressing differences, and recognition of "fairness" across lines of difference.
Take a look at the four anti-bias education goals - and think about how to support children in each of them. ChapterFour, on Learning Communities, will give you lots of ideas, including ideas about integrating families into your classroom.
The first year of teaching is always hard. There is so much to learn about the craft of teaching. But your vision of what you want to do will begin to unfold - and each year you teach you will get better and stronger at what you want to do. Welcome to the journey!

Chapter 5 talks among other things about bilingual education and how it can help children to be more successful in their academics. I am from a German speaking part of Italy, called South Tyrol. 70% there speak German as first language and start learning Italian in 1.Grade. The 30% Italian speaking children learn German in 1.Grade. However, a friend of mine, whose grandmother is Italian speaking (the rest of the family mainly spoke fluent German) went to an Italian preschool, but spoke only German at home. This went on until 1.Grade. Unfortunately my friend always had problems in both languages ever since. She kept mixing up the two languages in their grammar and constellation. I know a few children who had the same problems growing up. Do you think there is a certain age where bilingual education should start or a certain way in teaching it to children? I personally find that in our part of Italy we don´t get exposed to Italian early enough to be able to learn it fluently. The preschool I went to never exposed us to any Italian, no books in italian languages or anything else. I feel like that would have been important since we live in Italy, instead of starting Italian in 1.Grade with no knowledge about it. What do you think about that?
Thank you!

It is hard to answer your question in relation to the two specific experiences you describe-- yours and your friend’s—since we would need a lot more information about them. However, in general, it is very possible for children to become fluent in two languages—in another words, children are cognitively well able to do so. But, whether this happens depends on several factors. One is the attitudes of home, school and the larger society towards the child’s home language and the school language. If one is considered superior to the other, then children often do have problems with developing competency in both languages. Another factor is how they are taught. There is more than one effective method for supporting dual language development, but often teachers do not use these, because of insufficient training or because their school does not support what it takes to do effective bilingual education. A third factor is the relationship between school and home. If there is partnership between the two, then it much more likely that children will become fluent in two languages.

We suggest you look at the Research and resources sections on the website of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE)—www.nabe.org and also the NAEYC book, One Child, Two Languages: A Guide for Early Childhood Educators of Children Learning English as a Second Language (2d ed.), by Patton Tabors

I participate in a weekly discussion on Twitter called #ELLCHAT. We also have a facebook page. A diverse group of educators who work with all ages, from ESL, bilingual ed, special ed, general ed, and foreign language programs share ideas, resources and questions about working with children from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. Tonight - Dec 6 - our discussion topic is about addressing negative attitudes about immigrant students. Everyone is welcome to sign in to Twitter at 9:00pm EST tonight and search by #ELLCHAT to join in the discussion!

Thanks Karen for sharing this information. Ongoing conversations and support from colleagues is an essential part of doing effective diversity and equity education work. They also nurture us to stay on the life-long journey this work requires

This was an important topic to address when incorporating different cultures into the classroom setting. How soon should different cultures be introduced to the class at large? Is there any sort of limit as to every distinct culture that would be addressed to the class at large. This is an important topic in helping children understand themselves and importantly those around them, who come from all over the world and are raised with certain norms and identities

In the early childhood years, what is important is for the home cultures of each child to be supported in the daily learning environment and curriculum and for the children to be learning about and respecting their classmate’s home cultures... Culture is what each child lives each day. Young children are not cognitively ready to be learning about cultures as a whole or about cultural groups that are far from their experience. Limits about what cultures to address depends, first, on the home cultures of the children in your group, and, second , on the cultures of the families in their immediate communities and the children they will meet once they enter primary school. Thus, the question of which cultures to introduce and how many depends on who the children and families are in each class that you teach. Therefore, each year, you will no doubt have a somewhat different curriculum. The ABE book chapter about culture (5) addresses these issues in greater detail and has many suggestions about what to do.

Thank you for the response. It is important to understand different cultures that are important to the society that each of us have grown up in. It is easy to point out how different we all are, but the story of how each of us was raised is an important aspect as to who we are. This society each and every day is a melting pot, welcoming people of different faiths and experiences which is important. The culture I was raised in was most definitely from European parents who stressed hard work and doing your best each and every day, and most importantly opportunities persist.